Innholdsfortegnelse for Issue 13 - 2024 i Medieval World Culture & Conflict Magazine

In this issue, we focus attention on the Iberian Peninsula in the late Middle Ages, and in particular on the impact of the Catholic monarchs Queen Isabella I of Castile and King Ferdinand II of Aragon. Their union in 1469 set in motion an array of cultural, religious, military, and diplomatic changes, leading to the unification of the kingdoms of the Iberian Peninsula and the eventual establishment of the Spanish Empire in 1492. The theme-related content in the pages that follow explores the marriage between Isabella and Ferdinand, their involvement in the Granada War (1482–1492) and explorations of the wider world, as well as their religious reforms, including the expulsion of the Jews, and their dynastic legacies across Europe. In addition, this issue features content from other corners of the…

A significant medieval document, forgotten for over 70 years, will be restored by researchers at the University of Warwick's Venice Centre. It reveals a new perspective on global exchange in the decade after Marco Polo's death. This parchment provides vital testimony on the Venetian merchants who continued the journey of Marco Polo in Asia in the first half of the fourteenth century. Stored at the Venetian State Archives, the document details the travels, investments, and commercial enterprises of six Venetian nobles who, after returning from China, embarked on another journey to the Sultanate of Delhi in 1338. Dr. Luca Mola, from the University of Warwick's Venice Centre, said: “They brought with them two remarkable mechanical gifts – a clock and a fountain – which they presented to Sultan lbn Tugluq.…

The new cathedral was built on the site of Trinity Church and its surrounding wooden structures, which were deliberately raised in the space of the posad or marketplace, outside the walls of the Kremlin – Moscow's fortified and elite civic and religious epicenter. The location of these religious monuments underscores the tsar's connection to the people, unmediated by the supreme power of the Kremlin, its aristocracy, and its clergy. Ivan IV had commissioned these churches to commemorate his victories over the independent Tatar Khanates of Kazan' and Astrakhan in central Russia. This Russo-Kazan War lasted from 1437 to 1552, concluding during Ivan's reign. His victories significantly expanded the borders of his domain, helping transform the Russian State into an empire with far-reaching control and a multiethnic population. The territorial and…

Venice had been a renowned naval power at least since the eleventh century. The Empire, however, was more of a land power. When the emperor crossed the Alps to subdue rebellious Italian subjects, he called on nobles such as the Duke of Saxony or the Archbishop of Cologne to accompany him with sizeable contingents of troops. Although northern maritime trade cities like Hamburg also belonged to the Empire, they did not supply ships for Italian campaigns because their vessels would have had to sail around France and Spain before they even reached the Western Mediterranean. Therefore, the emperor usually turned to the other two great Italian sea powers: Genoa and Pisa. Even though they were his subjects, Frederick I Barbarossa made treaties with both city states in 1162 when he…

THE EXPULSION OF THE JEWS FROM SPAIN A hundred years before the expulsion, in the summer of 1391 – and following the incitement of the Franciscan prelate Ferrant Martínez – the Jews of Seville, Toledo, and dozens of other towns in the kingdoms Castile and Aragon were attacked and murdered or sold into slavery. Their homes and businesses were destroyed, and their synagogues were burned to the ground or consecrated as churches. In Barcelona, the escribanías, the archives that held the records of debts owed by Christians to Jews, were also destroyed. Conversion Preachers like Martínez were always able to take advantage of the Catholic Church's precarious attitude toward Jews: from the time of Augustine (354–430), their degradation rather than their destruction had been standard policy. Living Jews were needed,…

PORTUGAL AND SPAIN 'FIND' THE WORLD The first steps toward a seaward exploration of the world beyond Europe began in the fourteenth century (Marco Polo published his travels along the Silk Road in ca. 1300). Several lands and territories beyond had been known to ancient geographers but had become lost, doubted, fabled, or remained unfound in the then modern world. In some cases, however, certain places were included in atlases published before the first Western voyages, which indicates some prior knowledge and even contact. The Canary Islands, west of Morrocco, were among the first discoveries by sea. Genoese sailors traditionally first reached the Canaries in 1312. By 1402, Castile conquered the islands. Portuguese discoveries continued in Madeira (from 1418) and the Azores in 1427. In both of these cases, the…

Seondeok had a sister, Cheonmyeong, but no brothers. Her father considered naming her brother-in-law Kim Yongsu, Cheonmyeong's husband, as his heir, but disputedly changed his mind after Seondeok requested that she be given the opportunity to rule. Female rule in the Korean kingdoms was not unprecedented, but not widely accepted. Once Seondeok was named heir, a rebellion immediately fomented against her, which was eventually repressed. A female ruler In January 632, Seondeok became the first queen regnant of Silla. Her first royal policies focused on the care and enhancement of life for the poor and the elderly, as well as on fostering diplomatic relationships with her neighbours. However, the male monarchs turned against Seondeok, refusing to recognise her rule and authority, seeking to install their own power in the region.…

Columbus: The Four Voyages, 1493–1504 By Lawrence Bergreen Penguin Group, 2011 ISBN: 978-1410441157 1492: The Year the World Began By Felipe Fernandez-Armesto HarperOne, 2010 ISBN: 978-0061132285 Jewish Poetry and Cultural Coexistence in Late Medieval Spain By Gregory B. Kaplan ARC Humanities Press, 2019 ISBN: 978-1641891479 The Medieval Spains By Bernard F. Reilly Cambridge University Press, 1993 ISBN: 978-0521397414 Creating Christian Granada: Society and Religious Culture in an Old-World Frontier City By David Coleman Cornell University Press, 2003 ISBN: 978-0801441110 Empire: How Spain Became a World Power, 1492–1763 By Henry Kamen Harper Perennial, 2004 ISBN: 978-0060932640 Isabella and Ferdinand King of Castile By Ruby D. Mitchell and Marjorie Boyd Xlibris, 2017 ISBN: 978-1524557232 Prince Henry “the Navigator”: A Life By Peter E. Russell Yale University Press, 2001 ISBN: 978-0300091304 Other books,…

Horses crossed the Baltic Sea in ships during the late Viking Age and were sacrificed for funeral rituals, according to research from Cardiff University. Published in the journal Science Advances, the study examined horse remains from ancient burial sites in Russia and Lithuania, revealing that these animals were transported overseas from Scandinavia. This movement was facilitated by extensive trade networks that connected the Viking world with the Byzantine and Arab Empires. Previously, researchers believed that sacrificial horses were always locally-sourced stallions. However, the new findings show that horses from modern Sweden or Finland traveled up to 1,500 km across the Baltic Sea. Additionally, genetic analysis indicates that one in three of these sacrificial horses were mares, demonstrating that the sex of the horse was not a crucial factor in their…

Fans of medieval manuscripts have even more to explore with new additions to ecodices, the Virtual Manuscript Library of Switzerland. The database has recently digitized 30 manuscripts dating between the ninth and fifteenth centuries. Among the additions is this Franciscan breviary, which dates between 1482 and 1490. In addition to the red and blue lombards, the manuscript has impressive goldbackground initials. The calendar refers to the diocese of Constance; possibly the breviary belonged to the convent of Paradies. Glued to the back pastedown, the depiction of a nun kneeling before an enthroned Christ with a bleeding head cannot be dated with certainty. The manuscript may have been made in the town of Constance for a convent of Franciscan women. Other newly digitized manuscripts include the Pontifical of Jean de Venningen…

MOVING AND FIGHTING IN ARMOUR There is no avoiding the fact that armour has weight. Wearing an outer shell of iron or steel means carrying a few extra kilograms – but how many? The exact weight of any armour varies, depending on style, completeness, and the thickness of the metal used. Generally, however, the range is between twenty and thirty-five kilos (or fifty to seventy pounds). Tournament armour, built to withstand repeated and more direct strikes, tends to be heavier. Because there are no surviving examples of full-mail harnesses, as we see in the thirteenth century, it is a little harder to tell what they truly weighed, but estimates based on good reproductions suggest that they tended to be a little bit lighter, closer to twenty than thirty kilos. Thirty…

THE YEAR THAT CHANGED SPAIN The changes of 1492 were preceded by key religious, cultural, and military events in the earlier decades and even centuries in the region. For one thing, the Iberian Peninsula was divided between different kingdoms and powers for much of the Middle Ages, and was home to competing faiths, among them, most notably, Judaism, Christianity, and Islam. A Jewish community had existed on the peninsula since ancient times, but the Jews experienced moments of acceptance and harsh treatment under Muslim and Christian rule in Iberia. The Muslim armies, in turn, gradually conquered most of the Iberian Peninsula beginning in the early eighth century, leaving a lasting imprint on the cultural and artistic fabric of the territory. The northern regions of the peninsula, however, among them the…

To achieve these goals, the Catholic monarchs first reorganized the finances of Castile to increase its revenue. The Cortes (Parliament) moved from gathering some 28-60 million maravedis (medieval Spanish currency) per year during the early fifteenth century, to about 140-150 million in 1483, with peaks of 175 million in 1487 for the siege of Málaga, and even 200 million in 1489 for the siege of Baza. By 1479, the cities of the Cortes were raising a fixed amount per year to maintain a force known as Santa Hermandad to fight against bands of robbers and criminals. Soon, this force was turned into a true army, but one that was, in fact, much smaller than the one recorded in the chronicles. The Castilian defeats The Granada War began in December 1481…

A TRIP FROM JAPAN TO ENGLAND While systems of slavery were absolutely indigenous to Japan, prior to the sixteenth century, the vast majority of enslaved people stayed within the country. However, with the arrival of Portuguese and later Spanish shipping in the second half of the century, the trade in people came to include those who were removed from the Japanese islands to be trafficked through wider trade networks. These people found themselves travelling to destinations as far away as Europe and the Americas, and everywhere in between. Trafficked The enslaved were victims of slave traders for a variety of reasons: sold to pay family debts, children given away by parents to spare them from famine or death, and those stolen by bandits of the sort immortalized in Kurosawa's movie…

Agincourt: Battle of the Scarred King ISBN: 978-1472855206 Osprey, 2023 $30.00 (hardback) www.ospreypublishing.com Agincourt is Michael Livingston's third medieval English battle title for Osprey (following Never Greater Slaughter about the battle of Brunanburh, and Crecy: Battle of Five Kings, both published in 2022). He has remained busy, publishing this title followed quickly by the coauthored The Killing Ground (with Myke Cole) about all the battles fought over the pass of Thermopylae in Greece (Osprey, 2024). Agincourt (or Azincourt) is probably the most famous medieval battle, fought on Saint Crispin's Day, 25 October 1415, between the forces of the French King (commanded by the Constable of France, Charles d'Albret) who outnumbered those of the English King, Henry V. Many (if not nearly all of us) know of the English Longbow bringing…

A team of archaeologists in Germany has discovered a medieval games collection including a well-preserved chessman, gaming pieces, and dice. Dating to the eleventh or twelfth century, the game pieces were found during excavations of a long-forgotten castle. “The discovery of an entire games collection of the eleventh/twelfth century came as a complete surprise to us, and the horse-shaped knight piece is a real highlight,” says Dr. Lukas Werther from the German Archaeological Institute (DAI). The finds were discovered during excavations of a previously unknown castle in southern Germany. The eyes and mane of the 4 cm high horse figure are moulded. This elaborate design is typical of particularly high-quality chess pieces from this period. Laboratory results reveal that users would have lifted up the knight in a similar way…

After three years of meticulous work, a medieval painted Crucifix by Ambrogio Lorenzetti has been restored, unveiling its original splendour as it appeared in the fourteenth century. Ambrogio Lorenzetti (ca. 1290–1348), a Sienese painter known for his early Renaissance masterpieces, created the Crucifix in 1329 or 1330. Now residing at the Convent of San Niccolò al Carmine in Siena, this piece reflects Giotto's impact on Lorenzetti's, yet showcases features of his mature style, including elaborate decorations on the tabellone – the body of the cross – and Christ's halo. Despite missing some parts, it exemplifies the complex carpentry and Gothic design characteristic contemporary of Sienese crosses. The depiction of Christ reveals Lorenzetti's skill in handling naturalistic elements. The body's anatomy is masterfully conveyed in its volume, and a delicately nuanced…

PUNTA SALVORE AND THE MYTH OF VENICE The blue sky over the Istrian coast is pierced by a forest of masts. On their very top flutter either the Venetian winged lion of Saint Mark or the Imperial double-headed eagle, vying for dominion of the skies. Far below them, the real fighting is done. Men crowd the decks of interlocked galleys, jump from one ship to another, and try to wrestle it from the control of their enemies. This struggle seems to take place not in the waters of the Adriatic, but in a sea of drowning sailors. This is how Domenico Tintoretto imagined the battle of Punta Salvore roughly 400 years after the date on which he thought it had happened. The famous Venetian painter located the key scene of…

In June 1494, Spain and Portugal divided the newly discovered lands of the world between themselves, documenting this effort in the Tratado de Tordesilhas. The signatories included Fredinand and Isabella, their only son, Juan, Prince of Asturias, and the king of Portugal João (John) II. In 1481, Pope Sixtus VI issued a Papal Bull, Aeterni regis, which confirmed the Portuguese claim to rule any and all lands south of the Canary Islands. The voyage of Columbus in 1492, when he made his return, showed that there were lands beyond the Canaries and, given Columbus had claimed the new lands for the crown of Castile (the Antilles – which were southwest of the Canaries), this brought Portugal and Spain into conflict once more. Portugal and Spain divided the new lands between…

Isabella of Castile, the daughter of King John II of Castile and Isabella of Portugal, displayed an early aptitude for playing the sophisticated political games necessary to seize power. Her half-brother, King Henry IV, inherited the throne following the death of John II. During Henry's reign, the nobles increased their influence, weakening the king and causing the decentralization of the kingdom. Isabella conspired to fill in the vacuum created by this state of affairs. The wedding Isabella grew up in the company of her formidable maternal grandmother Isabel de Barcelos, who instilled in her a high sense of self-esteem combined with her elevated status as the daughter of a king. She had faith in her destiny to wear a crown. In order to consolidate her position, Isabella made a deal…

DECIPHERING A ROYAL TALISMAN The Szczerbiec, or “Jagged Sword,” owes its name to an apocryphal episode in 1018, when Boleslaus the Brave, soon to be crowned the first king of Poland, chipped its blade upon the Golden Gate of Kyiv. The unique style of the Szczerbiec's elaborately decorated hilt has inspired many theories as to the sword's precise origin. Spanning the sword's cross is a talismanic inscription that promises its wielder divine protection through the invocation of the secret names of God. The vaguely Hebraic names inscribed on the reverse has led to the suggestion that the sword was a gift from Polish Jews. Earlier scholars pointed instead to the Teutonic Knights in neighbouring Prussia, while the emblems on the sword's pommel have latterly been associated with both the Templars…

ISBN: 978-1641890670 ARC Humanities Press, 2023 $145.00 (hardback) www.arc-humanities.org From the moment Portuguese merchants arrived on the southwest coast of India in the early sixteenth century, the Jewish community they found there was subjected to the fascinated gaze of Europeans. Various legends and origin stories were attached to it, the most misleading of which assumed they had been there since time immemorial, had been isolated from the wider Jewish world, and that European contact with them amounted to a 'discovery' of an 'exotic' community of Jews. Ophira Gamliel's new book aims to correct all three assumptions by placing the origin of Jewish life in Malabar more precisely, and by showing how Jewish merchants had trading and intellectual contacts in Persia and Yemen, as well as and in the Mediterranean as…